Air dragon – acrylic paintng

The pleasant air and wind,

with sacred thoughts

do feed my serious mind.

–  Rowland Watkyns, The Poet’s Soliloquy

Music theme: The Air That I Breathe – The Hollies

This is last one of dragon series painting and one of 4 elements dragons (along with Water dragon, Earth dragon and Fire dragon).

I was thinking of the air.. how to paint something that couldn’t be seen?
But then, I can feel it. I can feel the air, the breeze, the wind. I can feel in colors. To me the air is blue and white, and sometimes black, sometimes with gold and silver and pearl.

So I’ve chosen light blue, white and black paint and put it on canvas, applied plastic foil several times and there was the air.

Ever wander how do dragon’s eyes look? Here they are in the plate 😉

(I use dried paint from the paint tube top).

Black, white and blue

Foiled

More paint

Dragon’s eyes

 

When I lifted the foil, I looked at the unfinished picture to find my dragon. So he finally came flying from above.

Plain air

Dragon is coming

I’ve painted thick layers of white and gold paint as feathers, added dreid paint eye and the Air dragon was finished.

Below in the different light angle and details.

Dragon, different angle

Details.

Fire dragon 2-acrylic painting

For, after all, you do grow up, you do outgrow your ideals, which turn to dust and ashes, which are shattered into fragments; and if you have no other life, you just have to build one up out of these fragments. And all the time your soul is craving and longing for something else. And in vain does the dreamer rummage about in his old dreams, raking them over as though they were a heap of cinders, looking in these cinders for some spark, however tiny, to fan it into a flame so as to warm his chilled blood by it and revive in it all that he held so dear before, all that touched his heart, that made his blood course through his veins, that drew tears from his eyes, and that so splendidly deceived him!

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, White Nights and Other Stories

Music theme: Ring Of Fire – Johnny Cash

This is one of dragon series painting and one of 4 elements dragons (along with Water dragon, Earth dragon and Air dragon).

The process of creating this painting was intuitive. I had only the concept in my head, not the clear vision. I let my subconscious lead the way.
The technique is same as for the other paintings:  squeezing the paint on to canvas, smearing it with foil.

Squeeze

Smear

Lifting the foil, I saw it! I saw my dragon rushing from the fire.

Can you see ?

See?

Oh, yes!

I’ve painted the dragon, added some details, eyes (next time I will show you dragon eyes) and that was that.

Finished

Different light angle

Details:

Eyes

Scales

Earth dragon-acrylic painting

Earth dragon

Silent is the ruined land.
Man is brutal
and the rain does not wash away
the pain
or rid the distant memory.

It makes it glisten

– Cecil Castellucci, Boy Proof

Music theme: Earth Song – Michael Jackson

This is one of dragon series painting and one of 4 elements dragons (along with Water dragon, Fire dragon and Air dragon).

This painting was made by using my, well I might say, standard technique. Randomly squeezing paint directly onto canvas, than putting some plastic foil on top of that and smearing it until I feel it is perfect.

Squeeze

Cover

After lifting the foil, textured surface is reveiled. I let my imagination and intuition lead the way. I often see and feel picture painting itself and all kind of images emerge.

Smear

Lift

Rotating this canvas, suddenly I saw my dragon!

Can you see it?

.. And now?

Oh, my dragon is hiding!

Here it is!

Different light angle:

Earth

Dragon

Water dragon – acrylic painting

Water dragon

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.
― Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

Music theme: Water  – The Who

Another one from the Dragons series, I’ve already mentioned in previous posts (Ice dragon and Fire dragon) and one of 4 elements dragons (along with Earth dragon, Fire dragon and Air dragon).

I’ve used similar technique as for the other two. First I randomly squeezed paint on the canvas, directly from the tubes. I’ve used the colors of blue and green hues and mixed them on the canvas with the palette knife.

mess

less mess

When dry, I painted the dragon with thick layers of silver paint as scales on dragon’s body.

The texture is visibile on the negative – it almost looks like an X-ray picture of the livnig creature :).

Negative

Different light:

Ice dragon – acrylic painting

She had never known that ice could take on so many shades of blue: sharp lines of indigo like the deepest sea, aquamarine shadows, even the glint of blue-green where the sun struck just so.
― Malinda Lo, Huntress

Music theme: Immigrant song – Led Zeppelin

Second dragon from dragon series.

I’ve used gloss gel medium for the 3D effect. Than  I randomly squeezed some colours on the canvas. Applying the plastic foil, I got desired texture and let it dry.

When dry, I added thick layers of white to create iceberg.  I mixed modelling paste in the color to get  structured finish.

Playing with the brush and paint, adding few shades of blue, light green and silver I let the imagination lead the way, and there is the end result (pictures taken in different light):

Fire dragon, acrylic painting

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

– Emanuel Swedenborg

This painting is from my dragons series. It is textured and made by intuitive painting technique… I myself wasn’t sure how is going to look when finished.

First was my favorite: applying plastic foil on thick layers of paint.

Than, I played with the foil a bit to get more flame-like texture.

When dry, I put some black and gold paint, and then painted a dragon.

The painting is done.